CABALLERO: Because what I see is happening in my community that I’ve lived in for quite a while ... the development and the traffic, the parking, the communities are all losing their identity. What we see is there’s more traffic going through these neighborhoods that are basically single-family homes, you have parking being removed from these areas, you have more potholes, and the issues that we’re focusing on in the city are not really being translated to the community. So if you think of like the Chargers stadium, for example … the deals of giving large amounts of public money, when you see the utility rates going up, you see the water rates going up, it’s getting hard to live here. And that’s mainly where my heart is. I love San Diego, I love the people of San Diego, I see that we can make that difference, so that’s why I’m running.

Q: The main cause of poverty in the city of San Diego is housing costs. What’s your idea about trying to bring down housing costs?

CABALLERO: Rent is just skyrocketing right now, so we need to instill some form of rent control. We’re one of the few major cities in the state that doesn’t have any form of rent control. Right now San Francisco is at 1.8 percent increase maxed out right now. And what we need to do is we need to start focusing on issues like that.

Development is extremely important and extremely crucial because of those issues that you’re talking about. We’re in a housing crisis. We need to be able to put more residents in our place because people want to move to San Diego. So what we need to do is we need to create a transportation-oriented type of development structure. Right now what we have is a system that basically puts units up and then just jams up traffic, and that’s a huge problem. In 2007, U-T put out an article that if they build in the quarry with Civita without a mass transit line going in and out like a trolley line that it would double traffic. Well, unfortunately, you guys were right. Absolutely, it did. You know, Friars Road from 3 to 6 [p.m.] … it’s gridlock, a huge problem. So we need to build those complexes like Civita, but we need to do it in a transportation-oriented way that way people can move in and out. We need to address those issues by increasing and ensuring that we develop smartly and ensuring that we have some form of rent control, and that will help.

Q: San Francisco and New York City are the two most expensive cities in American to live and both have substantial rent control, so it’s kind of tough to look at them as something we should emulate.

CABALLERO: Right. Well, when we take a look at those cities, San Diego’s about to be right there with them, so we need to do something. I think sitting on our hands and hoping it gets better is not the solution. We need to do something. Action needs to be taken. So I’m ready to bring people to the table and actually start having these conversations to start solving these solutions because the issues are apparent. We just need to have those solutions to fix and I think the rent control discussion is part of that conversation.

Q: You talk about transit-oriented development. SANDAG obviously is trying to decide how to spend money and potentially raise the sales tax. There’s a big debate about whether it should be transit-focused or transportation-focused. What’s your take on that tax proposal?

CABALLERO: We need to be 100 percent transit-focused. I mean … we obviously need to fix our roads that … that are breaking and falling apart, but study after study shows that when you add more roads, you add more traffic. People just drive on those roads. So we need to focus on a walkable, bikeable and a mass transit portable San Diego. That’s what’s important. Right now we’re doing great things with the trolley expansion. We need to expand it, and we need to expand it more. We need more buses, we need more bike lanes, we need more walking because right now in Friars Road, residents are afraid of crossing the streets because there’s either too much traffic or people are speeding by.

And this is happening not only in Mission Valley. This is happening in Serra Mesa, this is happening in San Carlos, Del Cerro. People literally ask for stop signs. They are so upset with the amount of traffic that’s happening, so they want to be able to move around. And these residents don’t want to sit in traffic for hours either, so they wish they could take a bus or a trolley station that was close by to them. And the fact that at least 50 percent of our residents have access to transit is a problem, and that’s what we need to solve. That’s how we need to be going.

Q: You mentioned the Chargers’ stadium. It’s clear you don’t support a subsidy. But the Chargers will tell you that they’re trying to build a convention center annex with their stadium. Where do you come down on convention center expansion?

CABALLERO: Well, the convention center expansion ... obviously the residents want it, right? A lot of residents say, hey, you know, we want Qualcomm. I go door to door, and the convention center is much more popular than the stadium. That’s what we’ve experienced in District 7. And on the convention center, I would love to see it go down to a vote for the residents to be able to vote for the convention center. However, with the Convadium plan, it’s putting us on the hook for much, much more than we really need to. There are great parts about the Citizens’ Plan that I like, which is the protecting our bayfront and ensuring that we have the ability to restructure the hotel tax … you know, the TOT, and being able to make decisions on what the land is going to be used in Mission Valley, as well as the downtown land. Those are important.

Now, the issue I have with the Citizens’ Plan is the same issue that I think Jan Goldsmith has spoken about is the poison pill … if any parts of the plan is deemed illegal, we’re on the hook for all that money to pay back to the hoteliers. And to me that’s dangerous. And I’d like to look more into that and figure out where it is because we have the conflicting views of the framer Cory Briggs and then you have Jan Goldsmith, our city attorney saying hey, this isn’t good. This circle doesn’t square, right? So what we need to do is figure out where the actual truths lie and then share that with the voters. But as far as the Chargers plan, I’m against it. As far as building a convention center, I’m for it if the residents vote for it. And what I want for that is a strong return on investment to ensure that we’re going to make money from this, make sure that we’re going to bring tourism to the city, and make sure it’s a plan that works because if we’re going to be using city money, we’ve got to make sure that’s going to bring back a return to our investment.

Q: What are your top priorities? And do you have qualms or concerns with how Scott Sherman has run the office?

CABALLERO: I will start with my priorities, and then we’ll go with the qualms. So my priorities are to ensure that the people who live in our city, in our district don’t get moved out of the district. I talk to people in Linda Vista all the time that are getting their rents increased so much that they’re literally moving out of the city. People are moving to El Cajon. People are moving to Tijuana. People are moving out of sometimes the state, right? So first we have to start solving the housing issue … period. That’s what we have to do first. That’s my first priority. And the second priority is to ensure that we have a water system that works for us because El Niño wasn’t as nice as they thought it was going to be for us. You know, they thought we were going to be able to restore all the water and all these things, but that didn’t happen either. So we need to start investing in a pure water system and ensuring that we have a wastewater reuse facility … we need clean pure water. That’s another thing that we need to do right away.

Q: Well, the city has already committed to that.

CABALLERO: Yes, exactly, so I want to continue to support that. And then we also need to ensure … and it goes back to the transit … that we start focusing 100 percent on transporting people in our city because right now, the way it’s currently working, people are getting frustrated. And that’s another reason people are leaving the city … they can’t handle the traffic, they can’t handle the cost. So those are the things that I want to focus on right away.

Now, my qualms with Councilman Scott Sherman is that he’s focusing way too much of his energy on the stadium and giving away large amounts of money that we don’t have that could be used and better served elsewhere.

Q: Well, he’s opposed to the Chargers’ plan, isn’t he?

CABALLERO: Not to the Mission Valley plan. And that was the thing that he was pushing for a very long time. When I talked to the residents out in the district, they were like, why is Scott Sherman spending so much money on the Chargers when my road is completely broken in front of my house or my sidewalks are completely destroyed? And that’s why I run, right? Because people are so fed up with either the Chargers stadium or the massive amount of development that’s lowering their property values, right? And that is the No. 1 reason that people are not happy with Scott Sherman, and it’s the reason why myself, as well as my Democratic opponent, have the opportunity to take this election. And those qualms come not from me, but from the community residents. I mean I’ve been walking for months and months. So people have been talking to me and saying yes. Scott Sherman? No, he’s not working for me.

Q: So you don’t support the Chargers downtown or in Qualcomm?

CABALLERO: Not with public money. I’ll offer one exception that I will allow public money to be used on the Chargers, and that is if Dean Spanos relinquishes the ownership of the Chargers to the city, period, kind of like what Green Bay does. That way we can actually make the profits that we deserve for our city for hosting an NFL team.

Q: Isn’t that a nonstarter, though? That would never happen again.

CABALLERO: Exactly. So I guess because of the nonstarter I will not support any public money going to the Chargers.

Q: Why not?

CABALLERO: Because studies after studies show … in fact, I believe it’s over 80 percent of economists in the country believe that stadiums and sports teams do not help the economy. They don’t. We have to pay the maintenance fees. They hurt small business around the stadiums. They increase gridlock which slows down everything. They don’t produce enough of an economic boost. Even if it was the Super Bowl, it doesn’t produce enough of an economic boost. So that money could be better served elsewhere that would actually produce revenue. That’s what we need to focus on … ideas that produce revenue and not old ideas that hurt economies.

Q: What should be done with the Qualcomm stadium site if the Chargers leave?

CABALLERO: I really enjoy what SDSU has proposed. I may be a little biased here. I am an alumni of San Diego State. But we need more classrooms for San Diego State. And we need to take that half and then take the rest and make it into the San Diego River Park. Like San Antonio, Texas … they had a river, the same type of river that we have here in San Diego. It’s decrepit, you know, you had vagrants in there, you had people living in there, it was a big problem. So what they did was they said we’re going to change it. We’re going to make it a pride point for San Antonio, and they did. And I don’t know if any of you have been to the San Antonio River Walk, but it’s beautiful. They have boats, they have shops. It really transformed that region. And it’s become a pride and joy outside of the Alamo, you know, that people go to the Alamo and then they go to have dinner on the River Walk. And we can do that here. And, you know, with San Diego State … they can build a small stadium for the Aztecs and … because San Diego State … their admission rate is like 37 percent, right? And that’s a travesty because San Diego State is one of the best CSUs in the state, right? And they’re actually nationally ranked. So we need to increase that number of admissions to San Diego State so we can keep students that graduate from there to stay … keep them here in San Diego. It’s important that we bring innovative young minds to the city. I mean I graduated from there, and I stayed. We can actually turn that region into a profit sector and a place where young minds can be educated, and then we can give a breath of fresh air to Mission Valley that it deserves because right now it’s just overdeveloped. And we need a green space pretty badly there.

Q: So one issue with that SDSU plan or the JMI plan is that … the foundation is that the land gets given to SDSU for free. Do you support that?

CABALLERO: I think that SDSU can afford it. I like the idea of increasing the amount of classrooms and the river park, but we can’t be in the business of giving everything away for free. I’m fiscally responsible. We need to come up with balanced solutions to these problems. We just can’t keep giving away the farm. We can’t give the money to the Chargers. We can’t give the money to SDSU. There’s a strong alumni program there. I’m part of it. You know, we can make it work because they’re going to get more admissions, therefore, they’re going to make more money. So I am for fair access to all land and making sure that people who are on it are paid a decent amount of what that land is worth. Now, SDSU as a university … we’d probably cut them a break, right? We probably wouldn’t charge them the exact property value, but they should pay something, right? So I don’t believe in giving away our land for free, unless it’s going to …

Q: How much of a break would you …

CABALLERO: I would like to discuss. That would be something that I would bring more minds that would have a better grasp on what it would look like. So that’s why I’m kind of the person that collects the compromise and brings many people to the talk because I can’t just say oh, I’m going to say this number, right? No, we need to work those numbers out … hammer them out and figure out what works best for everybody involved. So that’s kind of how I would run my office.

Q: We’ve asked all the other candidates for city office how they feel about short-term vacation rentals … whether the city should just add code enforcers and make it a much more tougher thing for people to do … the phenomenon of people renting out homes for two or three days when they’re not supposed to do that. What is your take on both what you’d like to do and how you think the city has performed so far?

CABALLERO: I think that the city hasn’t done enough at all. Right now, if you could take a look at Mission Bay … that Mission Bay is pretty much gone. It’s become nothing but vacation rentals. I like the idea of more neighborhood enforcers to show that hey, this is zoned for this type of land. We have hotels for a reason. We have hotel regulation zoning for a reason. We can’t have developers going in and buying large swaths of vacation rental homes from the residents that live in those areas and then say you know what, they’re just makeshift hotels now. And that’s wrong. So an idea that I thought that would be a fairly good idea … would be make it so it’s a primary residence where so if a person wants to do a vacation rental or a B&B, it would be listed as a primary residence. And if they go to France or Italy for a couple of weeks on vacation they can rent out their home, right? But I do not believe that investment properties should be allowed to be doing that. If they want to build a hotel they should build one. They shouldn’t be going under the rug, you know, trying to say OK, we can do this a lot cheaper and we can buy out these communities. Because when I go to Point Loma and all these areas and you know, from my previous time running for City Council, they say oh, I don’t know my neighbors anymore. And what’s happening is these schools are having less students so, the property taxes are being done as well. So now all of a sudden the community fabric is completely destroyed, and what we need to do is protect that. We need to protect the community fabric of our communities. And vacation rentals is just another way developers are finding a way to make our housing crisis worse.

Q: Last thoughts?

CABALLERO: What’s important for people to know is that there are candidates out there that are fighting for the people’s interests about their streets, about their safety, about their environment, about their water, everything that they care about is being addressed. And that’s what my candidacy brings to the table that no other candidate is bringing to the table … the idea that we are listening to the issues because we’re fighting for them, and only them, and that’s the only reason we’re out here. If everything was taken care of, there’d be no reason for me to run, but the fact is there is something missing. And we’re going to do that and listen. And what’s missing is listening. And we need to listen to the residents and listen to the community and actually come up with common-sense solutions to the issues, not talk about the issues, but actually find out solutions that actually help people every day.